發(fā)明家不一定能成為企業(yè)家

Matt Johnson was raised by entrepreneurs — his parents founded Denver-based landscape architecture practice Civitas — but he had no intention of creating a company himself. That was until, as part of his industrial design degree at London’s Royal College of Art, he invented conductive paint, with which he could create working electrical circuits on walls.

馬特•約翰遜(Matt Johnson)是在一個企業(yè)家家庭中長大的——他的父母在丹佛創(chuàng)建了景觀設(shè)計(jì)公司Civitas——但他從未有過自己創(chuàng)建一家公司的打算，直到他在位于倫敦的皇家藝術(shù)學(xué)院(Royal College of Art)攻讀工業(yè)設(shè)計(jì)學(xué)士學(xué)位時(shí)發(fā)明了導(dǎo)電涂料。這種涂料可以用來在墻上制作工作電路。

Now, Johnson is chief executive of Bare Conductive, a business formed around his product employing 10 people in a studio in Shoreditch, the east London tech start-up hub. The company has generated revenue of over £2.5m in six years of trading, selling its paint in kits through hobbyist websites and retail chains such as RadioShack in the US. Johnson is in discussions with several FTSE 100 companies about taking operations to a much larger scale.

目前，約翰遜是Bare Conductive公司的首席執(zhí)行官。公司是以他發(fā)明的產(chǎn)品為基礎(chǔ)成立的，有10名員工，辦公室設(shè)在倫敦東部科技新創(chuàng)企業(yè)聚集地肖爾迪奇(Shoreditch)區(qū)的一個工作室里。在過去6年里，公司通過業(yè)余愛好者網(wǎng)站和諸如美國RadioShack的零售連鎖店銷售涂料工具包，實(shí)現(xiàn)收入超過250萬英鎊。目前，約翰遜正在為擴(kuò)大公司規(guī)模，與多家富時(shí)100指數(shù)(FTSE 100)成分股公司洽商。

Many inventors like Johnson try to turn their innovations into businesses, but few reach a large scale. More often it is companies led by entrepreneurs, rather than inventors, that change society with their products.

許多像約翰遜一樣的發(fā)明家都嘗試將自己的發(fā)明商業(yè)化，但做成大企業(yè)的屈指可數(shù)。更常見的情況是，許多由企業(yè)家，而不是發(fā)明家領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的公司通過其產(chǎn)品改變了社會。

Steve Jobs did not invent the smartphone and Bill Gates did not create the personal computer operating system, but both built their companies into world leaders on the back of these innovations.

史蒂夫•喬布斯(Steve Jobs)沒有發(fā)明智能手機(jī)，比爾•蓋茨(Bill Gates)也沒有創(chuàng)造出個人電腦操作系統(tǒng)，但他們均依靠這些發(fā)明締造了世界領(lǐng)先的企業(yè)。

Julian Metcalfe and Sinclair Beecham, the founders of Pret A Manger, did what the Fourth Earl of Sandwich failed to capitalise on when he gave his name to the filled bread snack in the 18th century. In the 1980s, they bought a sandwich shop in Hampstead, north London, that was in liquidation and turned it into a global chain with almost 500 shops that sold £776m of snacks and beverages in its last financial year.

三明治這種食物于十八世紀(jì)由第四代三明治伯爵(指傳說中的三名治發(fā)明人約翰•孟塔古(John Montagu)——譯者注)發(fā)明，并以其爵位命名，但伯爵未能將這款夾肉面包食品發(fā)揚(yáng)光大。英國三明治連鎖店P(guān)ret A Manger的創(chuàng)始人朱利安•梅特卡夫(Julian Metcalfe)和辛克萊•比徹姆(Sinclair Beecham)卻利用這一發(fā)明大獲成功。上個世紀(jì)八十年代，他們倆買下了倫敦北部漢普斯特德(Hampstead)一家正在清算的三明治店，并將其打造成為一家擁有近500家門店的全球連鎖店，該品牌上一財(cái)年靠銷售三明治和飲料實(shí)現(xiàn)收入7.76億英鎊。

“I was lucky because I could follow the example of my parents,” Johnson says. He also relied on mentors to help him develop as an entrepreneur, and brought in other people to take on business functions that he did not have the skills to do.

“我很幸運(yùn)，因?yàn)橛懈改缸鑫业陌駱樱?rdquo;約翰遜說。他還尋求導(dǎo)師的指導(dǎo)來助其成長為一名企業(yè)家，同時(shí)，引進(jìn)其他人才來負(fù)責(zé)他力不能及的企業(yè)職能部門。

Having moved from inventor to entrepreneur, Johnson says he has developed a respect for those whose skill is to create companies rather than make technological breakthroughs. “I now understand that creativity isn’t only the realm of those creating objects,” he says. “Creating a company, to me, that is total magic.”

從發(fā)明家轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)槠髽I(yè)家后，約翰遜說，他對那些具備創(chuàng)建企業(yè)、而非技術(shù)創(chuàng)新能力的人由衷的敬佩。“我現(xiàn)在明白，并非只有發(fā)明家才有創(chuàng)造力，”他說，“對我而言，創(chuàng)建一家公司簡直是在變魔術(shù)。”

The stumbling block for many inventors is moving from being a small-scale operation to a large business, says Simon Bond, innovation director at SETsquared, an incubator programme set up 15 years ago by five UK universities to turn academic breakthroughs into large companies.

對許多發(fā)明家來說，難點(diǎn)是將小企業(yè)做大，SETsquared的創(chuàng)新總監(jiān)西蒙•邦德(Simon Bond)說。SETsquared是15年前由英國的5所大學(xué)發(fā)起成立的孵化器計(jì)劃，目的是將學(xué)術(shù)方面的重大突破轉(zhuǎn)化成大企業(yè)。

Thousands of inventors approach SETsquared for support. The incubator identifies those that truly have an entrepreneurial bent by insisting that everyone goes on a two-day introduction course that outlines how someone takes an idea from the back of a napkin to a commercial venture.

成千上萬的發(fā)明家向SETsquared尋求支持。這家孵化器機(jī)構(gòu)要求所有申請人參加一個為期兩天的入門課程，借此來發(fā)現(xiàn)那些真正具備企業(yè)家潛能的發(fā)明人。課程內(nèi)容是介紹如何將寫在餐巾紙背面的點(diǎn)子付諸實(shí)施，打造一家商業(yè)企業(yè)。

For many the stumbling block is about control, such as not being able to decide how the innovation should be commercialised or having to share their ideas with a management team, says Bond.

對許多發(fā)明家來說，主要的障礙是控制，例如，無法決定該如何將發(fā)明商業(yè)化，或不得不與管理團(tuán)隊(duì)分享自己的發(fā)明等，邦德說。

Those who do stay with SETsquared are those who are able to share the vision, he notes, often finding a mentor during the introductory course who later becomes the company’s chief executive. He cites the example of SETsquared alumnus Symetrica, a security systems supplier. It was based on a discovery in gamma ray technology by David Ramsden during research at the University of Southampton.

那些能分享其愿景的發(fā)明家最終獲得了SETsquared項(xiàng)目的支持，他說，他們通常在入門課程期間找到了一位導(dǎo)師，而導(dǎo)師之后也成了公司的首席執(zhí)行官。他舉了一個例子，SETsquared的成員企業(yè)Symetrica。這是一家安全系統(tǒng)供應(yīng)商，其產(chǎn)品基于大衛(wèi)•拉姆斯登(David Ramsden)在南安普敦大學(xué)(University of Southampton)研究期間發(fā)現(xiàn)的伽馬射線技術(shù)。

Ramsden had come to SETsquared imagining that his discovery would be of most use detecting low-level radiation in satellites, but after meeting mentor Heddwyn Davies, later Symetrica’s chief executive, he was convinced that there was a business opportunity in the technology’s potential to detect dirty bombs at security checkpoints at ports, for example. The company, which has raised $4.7m to date from private equity, is now a supplier to homeland security operations in the US.

在最初與SETsquared接觸時(shí)，拉姆斯登設(shè)想，他的發(fā)明最有可能用于探測衛(wèi)星的低水平輻射。但在與導(dǎo)師海德維恩•戴維斯(Heddwyn Davies)(后來成為公司的首席執(zhí)行官)見面后，他意識到，這項(xiàng)技術(shù)可用于在諸如港口等地的安檢點(diǎn)探測“臟彈”(含有放射性物質(zhì)的炸彈)，是一個潛在的商機(jī)。該公司已獲私募股權(quán)公司470萬美元的投資，現(xiàn)在已成為美國國土安全項(xiàng)目的供應(yīng)商。

“Successful businesses are more than great ideas,” Bond says. “Expanding the business consistently in a way that engages more than a top tier of customers takes more than a single invention.”

“成功的企業(yè)遠(yuǎn)非好點(diǎn)子那么簡單，”邦德說，“將企業(yè)不斷發(fā)展壯大，吸引頂級客戶以外的客戶群，僅靠一項(xiàng)發(fā)明是遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠的。”

Entrepreneur First is a London-based accelerator programme that helps technology graduates and those already working in tech start-ups to discover their inner founder. In the six years since it was launched it has enabled the creation of 150 companies, valued collectively at about $1bn.

Entrepreneur First是一個總部在倫敦的加速器計(jì)劃，它幫助科技領(lǐng)域的畢業(yè)生，以及那些已經(jīng)在科技新創(chuàng)公司工作的人，發(fā)掘他們內(nèi)在的、成為企業(yè)創(chuàng)始人的潛力。啟動6年來，它為150家企業(yè)的創(chuàng)立提供了幫助，這些企業(yè)的總價(jià)值約10億美元。

None of these founders would describe themselves as inventors, even though most have an engineering background, notes Matt Clifford, Entrepreneur First’s chief executive.

Entrepreneur First的首席執(zhí)行官馬特•克利福德(Matt Clifford)說，在這些企業(yè)創(chuàng)始人中，沒人會將自己定義為發(fā)明家，盡管他們中多數(shù)人都有工程專業(yè)背景。

“The invention itself is rarely the key to the whole thing at least with technology companies,” he says. “We look for people with a bigger vision, who can think in an unconstrained way, not limited by the original idea for their product.”

“發(fā)明本身成為創(chuàng)建企業(yè)關(guān)鍵的情況很少見，至少科技公司是如此，”他說，“我們尋找的是擁有更宏大的愿景、思維更加開放、不局限于產(chǎn)品的最初想法的人。”